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Patrick must rue the day he turned his back on Legislature

By Peter Lucas

Updated:
05/07/2013 09:12:15 AM EDT

Gov. Deval Patrick's problem is that he has no Republicans to kick around. Unlike President Barack Obama, who has made his attack on the Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives, a cornerstone of his presidency, Patrick has no Republicans to blame for his reduced tax-andspend initiative. Unlike Washington, where the Democrats control the U.S. Senate while the Republicans run the U.S. House, in Massachusetts the Democrats control both branches of the Legislature by overwhelming margins.

The 160-member House is made up of 128 Democrats to 30 members of the GOP (there are two vacancies), while the 40-member Senate has only a paltry four Republicans. So it is obvious that the Democrats rule.

So when Patrick gets rebuffed by the Legislature, as he did when the House whittled his grand $1.9 billion transportation tax increase plan down to $500 million, or made cuts in his annual budget, he had no one to blame but his fellow Democrats, which he did. And Patrick being Patrick, he refused to shoulder responsibility himself. He is an expert at that.

The reduced tax bill, also approved by the Senate, is currently before a joint conference committee.

It is one thing for a Democratic governor to dump on the GOP for obstructionism, it is quite another to blame fellow liberal Democrats, especially when they helped elect you to office in the first place.

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Patrick therefore found himself in the awkward position of going after fellow Democrats, like House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray, for not bending to his will, which he did. He pulled back only after he was scolded for doing so by Murray.

These Democrats Patrick criticized ironically are the same liberal Democrats who supported Patrick in his last election victory over Republican Charlie Baker.

In some ways Patrick sounded more like the Republicans in the House who also criticized the majority Democrats during House debate on the tax issue. Patrick charged DeLeo and his Democratic leadership team of playing a "fiscal shell game" and of returning "to the old way of doing business."

Patrick even compared House action on his tax bill to "the Big Dig and the mess that followed," conveniently forgetting the Big Dig and the suppression of the Central Artery was a Democratic idea to begin with, supported by the late House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Ted Kennedy, Gov. Michael Dukakis and a truckload of other Democrats.

Patrick was not the only top Democrat to dump on the Democratic leadership in the Legislature. He was joined by John Walsh, chairman of the Democratic State Committee, who believes in the "Deval Patrick Doctrine," which is to "grow a backbone (and) stand up for what you believe in," like voting to raise taxes.

"Governor Deval Patrick's voice echoes in my thoughts," Walsh said in a most unusual email to supporters after Patrick's setback in the House. What are his thoughts?

"You know, I can't believe my personal reaction to the Legislature's response to the governor's revenue proposal," Walsh said of the action of his fellow Democrats, led by Speaker DeLeo. "My close friends can't believe it either."

"I'm just worried that if we don't stand up for what we believe (higher taxes), we will lose," he said.

Walsh may believe that, but not too many Democrats in the House, who voted against the governor's plan, agree with him. Ninety-seven of them voted with DeLeo and against the governor.

Like his hero Patrick, Walsh also brought up the Republican "short-sighted legacy of Big Dig lies" about construction costs of the Big Dig. These costs, Walsh said, led to the ignoring of other masstransportation needs, needs that Patrick is trying to correct.

However, Walsh added, Patrick was being thwarted by unnamed "individual politicians" who are "flying our banner," like DeLeo.

Sometimes what goes around comes around. Patrick initially ran for office talking about taxes. Only back then he was going to reduce the property tax. He never did. Now he is leaving office and he is talking about taxes again. Only this time he wants to raise them.

The only thing slowing him down - if not standing in his way - are not Republicans, but fellow Democrats.

Patrick has always looked down on the Legislature, beginning on the day he was initially sworn in to office. Rather than take the oath at a joint session of the Legislature, which is traditional, he had a platform built outside the Statehouse facing the Boston Common. His back was turned against the Statehouse and the Democratic-controlled Legislature. The symbolism was telling.

Peter Lucas' political column appears Tuesday and Friday. Email him at luke1825@comcast.net

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